Nico at Hogwarts
by BrOwNiEfOx
Summary: After Percy and the gang failed against Kronos, Nico has been wandering alone. Now Hecate wishes to have his help in protecting her prized wizard, a boy named Harry Potter. Nico goes in hope to relax a bit from the constant monster attacks, but the Golden Trio have decided to make that impossible.
1. Chapter 1

Nico sat on a hill in England, looking up sadly at the sky, wondering what America was like right now. He hadn't been there in a few months, ever since the Titans had won the 2nd Titan war. And then, all his friends had died. The only reason he got out safely was that Mrs. O' Learly came and saved him at the last minute. As for everyone else… as far as he knew, they were dead.

Not all the Greek Gods were dead he was fairly sure. Some had joined the Titans, others were kept around like pets, and Zeus now held up the sky. Nico had since then traveled the world, going wherever he felt death. Why he was in London of all places, Nico didn't really know, he hadn't found any ghosts or anything.

Finally, he fell asleep, which really was a bad decision on his part. He should have known that a god or goddess was behind this.

In his dream, he was standing on Mt. Olympus, and standing next to him was a girl with black hair and eyes. She was wearing a formal Greek dress and was smiling slightly at him.

"Hecate." He addressed her, not bothering to be formal. "What do you want?"

"I have a quest for you, young hero!" She said in a sing-song voice. "I'm sure you've heard of Hogwarts from your father. I want you to go there and keep an eye on Harry Potter."

"Harry Potter, isn't he one of those two people that cheated death? And why should I help you, you betrayed the Gods." Nico folded his arms, angry.

"If you go, I will make sure that none of the Titans find you while you are there." Nico thought about it for a second. If Hogwarts was what he was thinking about, he'd be safe for about a year. A momentarily permanent home, even if just for a year, where he relax and stop running.

Nico put his hand out.

"You've got yourself a deal." Hecate grinned and shook it.

* * *

When Nico woke up, he found that he was still on the hillside. Next to him were a wand, a book, and a note. Pocketing the wand, Nico picked up the note.

_Dear Nico,_

_All your things for the school year will be in your room when you arrive at Hogwarts. Also when you get there the Headmaster will want to talk to you. Your wand is made out of Blackthorn with a Thestral tail hair as a core. As soon as you can, grab the book and don't put it down. In a couple minutes you'll get a surprise! Have fun!_

_~Hecate _

Nico inspected the book in his hand. It was written in Ancient Greek and the title said _Hogwarts: A History. _Nico ran his hand along the spine before opening it and staring at the Greek text for a moment. He had even begun to read the beginning of the book, about the four founders and their quest to create a school of magic for young wizards and witches, when he found out what the surprise was.

The book started to spin, Nico holding onto it tightly, before seeming to start to shadow travel, but with a slightly different feel. Nico made sure to hang on, not knowing what would happen if he let go.

* * *

"…Let us preserve what must be preserved, perfect what can be perfected and prune practices that ought to be... prohibited." Harry thought the toad's talk would never end. The entire hall practically sighed in relief when she finally sighed with relief and Dumbledore stood back up.

"Thank you Professor Umbridge. Now, we have one more teacher coming. He doesn't seem to be here yet… ah, here he comes now." As Dumbledore said this, a light opened above the Gryffindor table near Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Out of the light came a boy, who landed among the still empty plates. The boy then promptly stood up and looked around him, giving Harry a good look at the new kid.

The kid must have been 14 or 15 with pitch-black unruly hair. He wore old, beaten clothes. The jeans had rips by the knees and the shirt had a skull design on it. His skin was a pale olive color, and when Harry caught his eyes, he was greeted by dark brown eyes that bordered on black. They seemed to be broken, cracked, like they had seen too much and were just waiting to be done with the world. On his hand glinted a white skull ring, its ruby eyes glinting.

"Please meet Nico Di Angelo. One day every month he will teach a lesson of Defense Against the Dark Arts. Now Nico, why don't you come up here, we're going to sort you into a house." Nico walked across the table, every eye on him.

"Sit on the stool." Professor McGonagall instructed Nico, who did so and had the Sorting Hat draped on his head, leaving the entire school in silence as they waited to hear where the strange, new boy would go. With the entire school quiet, you could hear what the hat was saying.

"Hm, where to put you… why not delve into those memories of yours?" Nico seemed a bit shocked about the hat talking, but then his face became unreadable as the hat searched through his memories. "Ah, used to be so innocent. What a pity about your sister. You certainly are cunning and powerful. You lacked in loyalty at first, but you grew a bit there at the end… you're smart in your own field, a genius in fact. Bravery is always strong in your kind. Yes, yes, I think I'll do that. It'll make it much easier for you. GRYFFINDOR!"


	2. Chapter 2

There was no clapping for him, Nico noticed. Just silence. Silence like the dead. And that seemed to fit him perfectly. He took the hat off and walked down to Gryffindor, mentally thanking the hat for making his job of watching Harry easier by putting him in Harry's house. He was surprised that the Sorting Hat wasn't afraid of his memories, then again it had probably seen many things in its time. Many thing that would cause a normal student to turn tail and run.

Ignoring the looks he was getting, which ranged from glares to awestruck to loving, Nico sat down at the Gryffindor table, looking at the kids around him. He was sitting next to three kids. The first was a girl with bushy hair and brown eyes, the next a boy with orange hair, plenty of freckles, and blue eyes. The final of the three could have been a miniature Percy if it wasn't for a scar on his forehead that seemed to radiate death. Percy… Nico was abruptly thrown into a memory.

_Nico struggled to stay awake after summoning so many skeletons, but he had to keep fighting. Next to him, Percy, Annabeth, and Grover were also fighting. Nico couldn't help but smile when he saw a blade destined for Annabeth being deflected by Percy's arm. That dip in the Styx was a good idea._

_"Percy!" Nico called to him, moving a bit closer so they could talk easier._

_"Yeah Nico?" Percy called as he took out another monster, a new layer of dust covering each of them, mixing with blood._

_"You need to get to Olympus and stop Luke! If Kronos comes back, this whole war will be for nothing! I'll cover you!" Percy nodded as he, Annabeth, and Grover moved as one to the Empire State building, Nico attacking any monster that came too close to them._

_That was the last he'd seen of the trio._

"-llo?" Nico was pulled back to reality when he realized Bushy Hair was trying to talk to him.

"What?"

"Sorry, you spaced out there for a minute. Anyway, my name is Hermione Granger, that's Ron Weasley," she pointed at the red-head. "And he-"

"My name is Harry. Harry Potter." The trio looked at him expectantly.

"Yeah, Harry Potter, the reason I'm here." Probably shouldn't have said that. But none of them seemed to have noticed, though Hermione cast me a suspicious glance, before starting to serve up food that had suddenly appeared on the table. He watched them eat for a second before a pulled a small jar out from one of my pockets. It wasn't very big, but in it burned a green flame, Greek Fire. He served himself an extremely large meal taking up two plates, with the best food on the second plate, before setting to work.

Grabbing the second plate, he divided it into twelve equal portions. Starting with the first, he dumped it into the far, mentally praying to Zeus as the flames hungrily ate food. He continued to do this which each of the twelve main Gods and Goddesses. When he had at last finished, he set to work eating his own plate. He couldn't remember the last time he had had a good meal.

"What was with that waste of food?!" Ron was staring incredulously at Nico.

"In my religion you must sacrifice a section of your meal to the gods or face horrible consequences. But I wonder if it will even reach them…" Nico trailed off.

"Well that's a stupid religion!" Hermione declare, sipping her drink. Nico stared at her for a second. "I mean, Ron's right, it's just a waste of food." The shadows began to darken and thicken, slowly stretching closer to Hermione. Nico was practically shaking with anger.

"Hermione…" Harry watched the shadows draw nearer to his friend.

"I suggest you stop talking about my 'religion' like that." Nico glared at her, a glare that made her suppress a whimper of fear, and continued with his meal. Harry shot a glare right back, but Nico didn't care. He'd been under scarier ones.

* * *

Harry glared at the new kid again as the Gryffindors headed back to the common room. When they entered, Harry motioned for Ron and Hermione to join him one of the tables while Nico headed to an armchair.

"Did you hear what that kid said? That I was the reason he's here?" Harry desperately whispered to them when they sat down. Ron and Hermione nodded quickly.

"He must be a Death Eater!" Ron whisper/shouted. Hermione scoffed.

"You say that about everyone Ronald. Anyway, he's wearing a short sleeve shirt and I saw his arms. He doesn't have the Dark Mark. But I do wonder why he's here, I'll admit. Of course, tomorrow I'll go to the library and see if I can find anything out about him. I'm ever so interested in him."

"He gives me the creeps. I get this shiver down my spine like, like I do when I'm near Voldemort." Then a horrible thought struck Harry. "Guys, what if Voldemort is on him like on Quirrell?" Hermione was already shaking her head.

"You said last year that he came back to life Harry! He doesn't need to be on someone anymore."

"Then what do you think? I'd like to hear a better idea!" Harry cried angrily before giving a frustrated sigh. "Sorry Hermione, I need to get to sleep. Night." Harry got up and went upstairs going into the 5th year dorm. Inside, he found the extra bed that must have been for Nico, a pitch black trunk sitting on it. Harry climbed into his bed and was quickly out, not hearing the other enter.

The sleep was short lived though.

Around 4:00 am, Harry woke back up and found sleep impossible. Climbing out, he headed down to the common room. To his surprise, he found the Nico kid sitting in a chair in front of the fire, reading one of his school books. Harry quietly walked down the stair the rest of the way, hoping to find somewhere that he could spy on the new kid.

"Couldn't sleep Harry?" Harry jumped at Nico's voice, but quickly recovered.

"How'd you know I was here?" Harry walked over to where Nico sat on the couch and sat down himself.

"You practically ooze death." The boy said simply. Harry really didn't like this kid.

"Well, why are you up?" Harry hoped to get some answers, slowly worm things out of him.

"I don't like nightmares." Nico simply replied. "So I try not to sleep if I can help it, though sometimes a risk the sleep. Other times, I'll go a long time without any rest. I think the longest time was… 2-3 months. Yeah, that sounds about right." _How does this_ _kid usually live? _Harry turned to ask Nico more questions, like why was he afraid of simple nightmares, to find the14 year old out cold. Harry just shook his head and headed upstairs. As he climbed the stairs, he could hear soft whimpers of fear coming from the couch.


	3. Chapter 3

As their classes started the next day, Nico stared at the teacher in front of him. Professor Binns. Who was apparently a ghost. Nico didn't take his eyes off him even as he chose a seat. As Binns eventually started the lesson and called role call, he looked at Nico, a bit confused, but didn't say anything. Nico zoned off a bit during the lesson, not really paying attention. He just wanted to get it over with. He watched Harry and Ron playing hangman out of the corner of his eyes, chuckling a bit as Hermione shot them glares. When the lesson was finally over, Nico got up and gathered his things, only to be stopped by the ghost Professor.

"Nico, may I see you for a second?" Nico turned and walked over, things in his arms.

"Okay Professor, but I don't want to be late for my first day of potions." Binns seemed to be studying him.

"Tell me, why do you seem so different than the other students? You feel more… powerful." Binns said the last word carefully. Nico wondered for a moment if he should tell the ghost. Honestly, he just felt sad that he had missed his chance to go to the after world, not that he didn't seem happy here.

"I'm sorry Professor, I have no idea why you would think that."

* * *

Harry watched Nico arrive a bit later than the class, a far off look in the pale kid's eyes. Nico walked over to an empty cauldron and sat down, taking his things out of his bag. There was something wrong with that kid. He had a secret, Harry just knew it.

For the next hour and a half Harry did his best to try and make the Draught of Peace, but he was obviously failing miserably.

"A silver vapor should now be rising from your cauldron." Snape called. Looking, Harry saw his was more of a gray color, while Hermione's was a beautiful silver. As Snape walked around the class, he stopped in front of Harry. "Potter, what is this supposed to be?"

"The Draught of Peace." Harry tensed up.

"Tell me Potter, can you read." Snape's voice was dangerously soft.

"Yes, I can." Harry clenched his hand.

"Read the third line of the instructions for me Potter."

Harry looked at the black board, where he could hardly make out the lines through the mist from the other cauldrons.

" 'Add powdered moonstone, stir three times counterclockwise, allow to simmer for seven minutes, then add two drops of syrup of hellebore.'"

Harry's heart sank as the realization of what had done wrong hit him.

"Did you do everything on the third line, Potter?"

"No." Harry quietly said. "I forgot the hellebore…"

"I know you did, Potter, which means that this mess is utterly worthless. _Evanesco."_

As Harry's potion vanished, Harry began to get angry, but then saw Snape stop once again, but this time in front of Nico Di Angelo. Nico's cauldron had rainbow sparks jumping out of it and a black vapor billowing out of it.

"And what about you, Di Angelo. Can you read?" Harry watched Nico look right into Snape's eyes and then say with utmost confidence.

"No."

The entire classroom froze. Harry stared at the boy. Was he being serious?

"Excuse me Professor, but do you know what ADHD or Dyslexia is?" Nico didn't give Snape a chance to answer. "ADHD stands for Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder. Dyslexia is the difficulty to read. These coupled with each other and adding that with the smoke coming from the other cauldrons, no, I cannot read. I do understand that I will not be getting points for my work, but I had thought that you, as the teacher, would have gone out of your way to find if I had any inabilities that may make me not be able to show my full potential. Oh well. _Evanesco." _Nico pointed his wand at his cauldron and cleared the strange liquid from it.

Snape glared at him before giving the class homework and dismissing them. As the students all tried to squeeze through the doors at once, Hermione started talking to Nico.

"Nico, how could you talk like that to a teacher?! I am simply appalled at your behavior! How is it that _you _are a teacher and yet you don't show respect your fellow teachers?!" Harry watched Nico glare at Hermione.

"I know his type." Nico simply said before finally getting through the door. Hermione huffed as she watched him go.

"I can't believe him!" Hermione continued to rant, but Harry stopped listening.

* * *

Nico had already made his sacrifices and was eating his own lunch when the Golden Trio entered the Great Hall. The three sat down next to Nico, and right away Hermione went off.

"So Nico what school did you go to before you came here?" Nico was starting to get annoyed with this girl.

"It was more of a summer camp." Nico replied, and didn't give anything else away.

"Really? And what classes did you have? Any _dark arts?" _Man, this girl knew nothing about subtlety.

"You'll learn about my classes when it's my turn to teach." Nico quickly finished his food and got up. "I'd better leave now, since I tend not to enjoy being around ignorant children like yourselves." As he walked out of the hall, he could here Hermione give a huff from behind him.

"He thinks he's so much better than us just because he's a year above his age group and a part time teacher. He's one year younger than us!"

_I am older than everyone here, both physically and mentally. _Nico thought as his time in the casino and the war flashed through his head. _You have no idea who you're dealing with girl._

* * *

By the time divination had started, Nico had already found the tower, sat down in a random seat, been bored for a few minutes, opened his book before quickly closing, and taken a five minute nap before the bell rang. When Harry and Ron arrived, the only seats left to sit in were next to Nico. They both grudgingly took them, not even looking at him as they sat down and got out their books.

The class wasn't all that interesting, and Nico found his thoughts meandering around to odd and end things, like whether a monster would end up coming, despite what Hecate had said, or how many licks it would take to get to the center of a tootsie pop. When he came back to reality, Professor Trewlawny was staring at him with those weird eyes.

"Can I help you?" Nico asked.

"You, you have a dangerous prophecy!" He voice sounded different than it usually did, reminding Nico of Rachel, one of the few people he knew that had survived the war. Sitting up a little straighter, he wondered what the prophecy could possibly be.

_"You shall delve into the darkness of an endless maze,_

_The dead, the traitor, the lost one raise,_

_You shall rise or fall by the Ghost King's hand,_

_The child of Wisdom's final stand._

_Destroy with a hero's final breath,_

_And lose a love to worse than death."_

Nico sighed as Trewlawney came out of her trance. Been there, heard that, next prophecy please. Perhaps next time it would be the big Prophecy. The class gave him odd looks the rest of the period, not that Nico really cared. They had already been giving him odd looks.

The class luckily didn't last much longer after that. During the time to discuss their dreams, Harry and Ron didn't give him a second looks, talking to eachother about how stupid it was. But Nico knew how important it was to know what you dreams meant. Of course, demigod dreams tended to be pretty obvious, so it was not a lot of questions asked.

Once the class ended, Nico followed the group of Gryffindors to the next class, DADA. Now this one was quite funny to him. Defense Against the Dark Arts? His dad was practically the ruler of them. If anyone they even touched him, his dad would send them straight to Tartarus… at least he would've.

Shaking it out of his head, Nico kept on down to the hall and reached his class.

* * *

Percy looked up as he heard footsteps approaching the cell.

**_A/n: Haha , I'm getting to be just like Uncle Rick! I'll try to update as soon as possible!_**


	4. Chapter 4

_Percy looked up as he heard footsteps approaching the cell._

The cell he was in was dark with no windows. With him in there was a bruised, beaten, near starving Annabeth and a laurel tree. Percy himself didn't look too good either. Under his ripped, ragged camp shirt, Percy's ribs were showing from the small meal they got every day or so. If it wasn't for his Achilles Curse, he would be littered with cuts and gashes all over him.

The reason why the footsteps caught his attention was that they had just gotten food, and their cell was in an out of the way place. All the cells around them were empty, so the only time people or monsters came down here was to give them meals or beat them.

Looking as best he could through the bars, Annabeth and him watched as six guards approached, two for each prisoner.

The first one was a guy with blonde hair and blue eyes. He had a gash running down one arm and he, along with the two others, wore purple shirt that faintly read Camp Jupiter. He was struggling against his guards, not that it did much. He looked angry and was continually glaring at them, his glare reminding Percy of a wolf.

The next was a girl who had long, black hair that was pulled back in a braid. She had various cuts on her, and her brown eyes just stared forward. She didn't struggle against her captures, but walked with her head help high. She seemed to not want to show any weakness to the enemy, keeping a regal heir around her.

The last was an Asian looking guy with a babyish face and military-cut black hair, his brown eyes looking around nervously. His guards were practically pulling him forward. In one hand, the boy clutched a burnt piece of wood, his knuckles turning white from how tightly he was holding it.

The three teens were thrown into the cell in front of theirs which the guards clanged shut and locked before departing back down the hall. As soon as they were out of earshot, the three new (assumed) demigods began to argue with each other.

"Frank, you should have stayed with the rest of the Legion! Then you might have had a chance to escape!" Blonde complained to Frank.

"But I couldn't just leave my two Praetors to face those monsters alone!" The fear had left Frank's face. "Jason, we both know you and Reyna didn't stand a chance."

"Even if we didn't, we were supposed to at least stall them long enough for the others to get to a safe place, which they hopefully did." Reyna responded, some still having the royal air even in a jail cell. "Now we need to focus on getting out of here. There must be some flaw in the design that we can use to our advantage."

"Not one that we can exploit right now." Annabeth spoke up, causing Jason, Reyna, and Frank look over at them.

"Who are you?" Jason spoke up, looking at them suspiciously.

"I'm Percy, that's Annabeth, and that," Percy pointed at the Laurel in the corner sadly. "That's Grover." As Percy said his name, Grover shook slightly. The Laurel had grown while they had been here, and one of its branches went into a crack in the ground. From the plant came a ghostly figure of a satyr.

_"Nice to see you guys are making friends, but Tyson just gave me an update on the escape plans!" _Ghost-Grover's voice was urgent. _"Tyson and Hephaestus say that the diversion is coming along nicely. Give or take a year until it will be done, since they can only work on it at odd and end moments."_

"Thanks Grover."

"Whoa, you're friends with a faun? And don't you mean Vulcan?" Jason questioned.

"Vulcan… isn't that Roman?" Annabeth said thoughtfully. "We need to talk."

Nico's first DADA class was interesting to say the least. He was certainly surprised to enter the class room and find that they weren't going to use their wands, but opened his book and tried to read it all the same. After a handful of minutes and managing a few paragraphs, Nico gave up and turned his gaze to Hermione, whose hand was straight in the air. After that, he watched curiously at the events that followed, voices being raised, hands shooting into the air. Nico finally took a stand when Harry was going out the door to McGonagall's office.

"Excuse me miss, but I would like to add something on this matter." Nico kindly raised his hand and put on a innocent expression, like the one he had when he first met Percy.

"And who might you be?" Umbridge asked. Harry hung by the door.

"I am Nico Di Angelo miss, and Cedric Diggory didn't die of normal causes, nor an accident. And I would also like to make sure you know that next week on Wednesday, I will be teaching _my _class of fifth years instead of you. Finally, as a last remark…" Nico grabbed his quill and threw it, the class watching in stunned silence as it sailed through the air until it hit the toad's fly-like bow, pulling it off her head until it thunked against the wall. Nico smoothly spun around and walked out the door.

"I guess I'll see you at the next week of detention Umbridge."

Nothing interesting happened in the rest of the classes that day, nor any in the morning of the next, the majority just seeming to be there to occupy him until his detention came, leaving him to wonder what type of torture he would have to endure. The only lesson that caught him was Care of Magical Creatures.

Today they were studying Bowtruckle's, miniature nymphs that live only in tree's that wood is used for wands. As he got close and started his drawing of the creatures, one of them came up to him, tilting its head in a confused manner, as if asking a question. Holding out his hand, the Bowtruckle landed on it.

"I'm sorry, but my aunt may not be back for years, possibly never. I know it's already hard for you with Pan being gone, but try to hold out, okay?" The nymph sadly nodded and got off his hand, landing on his paper and grabbing his quill, scratching out some things and drawing in others, until by the end of the lesson Nico had an incredibly detailed image of a Bowtruckle. Giving an incredibly rare and small smile, Nico thanked the creature and returned to the castle, continuing his wait for the detention until it finally came.

Nico left the common room with Harry as they set down to Umbridge's office. Neither spoke to the other, avoiding each other's gaze as they came to a stop at the toads office. Harry knocked and they were let in. She smiled at them from her desk, the room having a theme of pink and kittens. Nico glared at them.

They sat down and stared at Umbridge, awaiting for instructions. She sat there writing for a moment, probably relishing the suspense they were in before finally acknowledging.

"It's so good to see that you have come. Today for detention you two will be doing lines. Here is a quill and a paper. Please write 'I must not tell lies' Potter and di Angelo. You may begin." They both picked up a quill began to write. As they did so, Harry gave a gasp of pain as the letters carved into his hand. Nico on the other hand, wasn't bothered by it in the slightest. He had been through so much worse. While he wrote the letters over and over with his own blood, his mind wandered, thinking about the last time he saw his dad.

_Flashback start****_

_Nico was trying to convince his dad to try and join the war between the gods and the titans, but his dad kept refusing._

_"Dad, please, my friends are out their! If we don't do something, life as we know it may cease to exist." Nico pleaded._

_"My family never cared for me; I see no reason to help them!" Hades growled back. Nico finally broke, his patience running dry._

_"Fine, you be like that. You stay down here and sulk. _I'm _going to go out there and try to make a difference!" Nico stalked out, not letting his dad see the tears streaming down his face as the prospect hit him even now that, one way or another, this may be the last time he ever saw his dad. What Nico didn't see, however, was his dad, hiding his face behind one of his enormous hands, trying to hide a stray tear himself, mumbling under his breath._

_"What have I just done?"_

**_Hey there everyone! Finally updated! I'm going to admit that I have read House of Hades, and the interesting part of Nico in that book. (For those of you who didn't read it, I won't say what it is.)_**

**_I will not be including this here because I started this fanfiction before that book. Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Please review!_**


	5. Chapter 5

After detention, as Harry and Nico walked back to the common room, Harry growled under his breath.

"I can't believe her, doing this, having us carve into the back of our hands. I hate her so much!" Nico halted, causing Harry to look back. He had his arms crossed, his 2nd best scowl on his face.

"Listen, I'm still kind of new to this whole thing, but I know about you. When you were a baby, you survived a killing curse. You had to live with your horrible aunt and uncle. Your first year you faced off against a possessed professor. Your killed a basilisk in your 2nd year. Third year, well, let's just say that I have a source that told me what went down that year. And just last year, you went through the Triwizard Tournament, watched a friend die by the hand of a reborn Dark Lord. Surely, after all that, you came live through this." His expression changed to be a bit softer, like the difference between steel and rock. Nico started walking again.

"I know that, other than the unforgiveable curses, this is the first form of real torture that you have to endure. But people look up to you. You have to stay strong, no matter what is thrown at you. I once knew a kid in a similar position as you. He had a hard time staying strong, but he did, until the very end." Nico then picked up his pace, leaving Harry behind.

_Time skip _

Nico staggered a bit as he landed at the ruins of Camp Halfblood. He had shadow traveled here to get supplies for his Defensive Arts class tomorrow. Looking around, Nico sighed at the desolate view around him. The fleece still sat on Thalia's tree, the dragon still curled around it. But it didn't really protect the camp anymore. The monsters that had come out of Tartarus were strong enough to break through it like paper. The camp was abandoned, no longer a safe haven for demigods.

Nico trudged through the remains of the cabins until he found the weapons shed. It still stood, luckily for him. Carefully opening the door, Nico looked through the weapons left here. The camp had never had a good supply of weapons, not as far as Nico knew. But there were still some usable things here. Rummaging through, he was able to find 30 swords. Many of them were bent at strange angles, but nothing that a night at the forges wouldn't fix. Nico didn't know where he'd find the forges, but he'd deal with this later. Stuffing everything into a bag, Nico headed out the door.

As he left, something came up behind him. In a blink, Nico's stygian iron sword was out. He was turned completely around, hitting his opponents weapon. His arm became numb as electricity surged through it. He jumped back. He only knew one person who had a weapon like that. But he thought for sure that she had died!

"Clarisse?!" Nico looked up and, sure enough, there she was.

"Nico, you're alive?" She responded, lowering her weapon.

"I could say the same for you." They both looked at each other for a few minutes, Nico still breathing in the presence of another halfblood. Finally, Clarisse turned around and started walked into the woods.

"Follow me."

* * *

They came to a stop a Zeus's Fist. Clarisse did a series of knocks and the boulder slid to the side, revealing that the rock entire thing was really hollow.

"Welcome to Cabin 0." Inside, people milled around, sorting through many different things or walking through stairs and doors. "The Hephaestus Cabin made this as a last resort after, you know… what went down at the Empire State building." Clarisse looked away. The surrounding kids slowed in their tasks, solemn looks on their faces. But it didn't last long. Clarisse snapped back quickly.

"Now keep up, this tour it going to be short, I've got things to do." Her walk quickened. Nico followed her through a series of doors. In one of the rooms they went through, Nico saw a group of kids, probably Hephaestus cabin, working on a giant robot dragon. As they passed, the dragon looked up, it's teeth wiring and creaking as if it was speaking.

"That's the Bronze Dragon. Nobody knows what to name it, or wants to for that matter. Beckendorf found him, and when he died, it went crazy for week. Then it became even more devoted to protecting the camp." They didn't stop walking while she said this. Finally, they came to a room where demigods were sparing against one another. Upon closer look, they weren't just sparing. They were training. By the look of it, in fact, the majority in the room were new recruits. Clarisse turned to Nico.

"Nico, I don't know where you've been or what you need all those swords for. I have a feeling that I don't want to know. But the satyr's have been working overtime to find the last remaining demigods before the monsters can get to them. We need you to take at least one." An underlying please that Clarisse would never say out loud was hidden in the sentence. With a sigh, Nico started around the room, looking from demigod to demigod, trying to decide which one he could live with. It was easy to tell the Veteran's from the newbies, as the newbies were the ones that were beat up. The Veteran's weren't holding back their Spartan teaching methods as they passed their war into the hands of this young, inexperienced souls.

Sitting in the corner, trying not to be noticed, sat a boy with curly black hair and ears like an elf's. His hands worked furiously and rapidly on some strange device in his hands. For a moment, Nico was a different boy there, trying to stay out of people's way as he ruffled through a deck of Myth-O-Magic cards.

"That one will do." Clarisse looked at the boy.

"Him? That's Leo Valdez. Him and a girl named Piper McLean came in just today; Hey, Valdez, get over here!" Leo looked up before stuffing the device in his pocket and running over, a grin stretching from ear to ear.

"Yeah, what is it? Because if it's about me not sword fighting, I swear that I have a really good explanation."

"Leo, meet your new leader, Nico di Angelo. You are to follow his every command. Pack your things."

"Done packing," Leo patted his pocked. Clarisse then turned to Nico.

"Nico, I'm sorry if your little visit has been short and not so sweet, but things have been heating up down here. We have plans to move across the country from rumors of other halfbloods, rumors of an entire other camp. If we can combine forces… but the trip will be dangerous, I may not make it there alive." Clarisse put out her hand. "Good bye Nico di Angelo. I hope to see you again."

Nico put his hand in hers. When they pulled away, a single golden drachma was in Clarisse's hand.

"If you're ever in any trouble, don't be afraid to give me a call. I'm at a place called Hogwarts. You won't be able to find it, but that should be enough to give me a message." As Nico and Leo left Cabin 0, Nico turned to Leo, looking him up and down. Shadow traveling was never easy business, traveling with luggage, such as swords, was worse, and with an entire other person… Nico was going to need a big meal and a good rest after this.

"Come on Leo, we need to get you enrolled."

* * *

A few minutes later, Nico and Leo sat in Dumbledore's office, sitting in a rather uncomfortable silence as they waited for Dumbledore to return with the sorting hat. Nico had earlier briefed Leo on where they were going. It had been decided that Leo could stay as a new student. Dumbledore hadn't pried a whole lot, that twinkle in his eyes never leaving throughout the entire conversation. Finally, he came back with the tattered black hat in his arms.

"Now then, Leo, just put this on and your house will be decided. Usually we do this at the beginning of the year in front of the entire school but both you and Nico seem to be special cases for many things." Leo picked up the hat and looked at Nico skeptically before placing it on his head. A handful of seconds late, the brim of the hat opened up and cried "GRYFFINDOR!" before going silent once again. Nico and Leo thanked the Headmaster once again before leaving, heading towards their dorm. People gave them strange looks as they passed, but both of them had gotten used to that many years ago.

They reached the common room and went into the 5th year dorm. It seemed they would have all of the same classes. Sitting on the extra bed that had magically appeared in the room and was destined to be Leo's sat a letter and a wand. The wand was rather plain and simple, the most decorations being a flame carved into the side. The letter read:

_Leo Valdez,_

_I am more than please to allow you to attend my school of magic; although there are a few traits that you have you must keep to yourself and not share with others. I'm sure you know what I mean. You also must understand that by being here, you accept that things may not go the way you expected them to go. Lying on top of this note is your wand. It's wood is that of an acacia. The core is I got for you is specifically to help channel your power. It is the hair of a god, though he made me promise not to tell._

_~Hecate, goddess of magic_

"Hm, nice to get such a warm welcome." Leo idly spun his wand in his fingers as he read the note. He looked up to see Nico leaving, still lugging around the swords. "Hey, shouldn't we be going to class or something?"

"Well, I haven't been there all day. And I really need to deal with these swords. I don't have any solid plans of where I'm going to find a forge but, I need to train you up in everything about being a demigod. Want to come?" Nico wasn't really big on company in general, but he needed to get to know this guy and try to figure out some of the things that Hecate had talked about in the letter.

"Sure!"

**A/N: Hurray, another chapter! They're really just popping now! I hope you enjoyed it! Please review!**


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